SAS raises trust in AI, analytics with Veritas Toolkit

Analytics and AI firm SAS Institute is working with the Veritas consortium, which is led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, to integrate and operationalise the Veritas toolkit with SAS Viya platform.

The objective of this integration is to improve trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in the financial services sector. 

The Veritas initiative is part of Singapore’s National AI Strategy which aims to provide financial institutions with a verifiable way to incorporate the principles of Fairness, Ethics, Accountability, and Transparency (FEAT). 

The integration of SAS Viya analytics lifecycle framework with the Veritas toolkit enables assessing of fairness in analytical models by leveraging out-of-the-box natural language generation and workflow capability in SAS Viya.     

SAS aims to support the Singapore National AI Strategy of increasing productivity through the adoption of AI and ensuring its benefits to businesses, creating new jobs through increased AI innovation activities, and increase societal acceptance and trust of AI and analytics within the financial community through sound AI governance.  

“Singapore is making great strides in innovating its financial and fintech industries,” said Lim Hsin Yin, SAS Institute managing director in Singapore. 

“We see this work as being very beneficial for financial institutions, given that regulatory and audit reports require both accuracy and timeliness in submissions,” said Lim. 

The SAS Viya framework extends beyond the fairness principle to other areas of AI governance including explainability, auditability, accountability, and transparency. SAS Viya also interacts with the open source to enhance automation and governance. 

“The need for regulatory frameworks to capitalize on the promise of AI while mitigating its risks is not only important but urgent in these times,” said Reggie Townsend, chief data ethics practice officer of SAS Institute.  

Both technology providers and regulators have a critical role to play to ensure that AI development is centered around people to ensure a positive impact on our society.